A new space of 42 linear meters installed in the entrance hall of the building designed by Rafael Moneo, allows visitors direct access to the life and work of Ortiz Echagüe, the great Spanish photographer of the twentieth century, whose bequest composed of more than 1,000 photographs remains unabridged in the Museo Universidad de Navarra.

Permanent in its location but with a changing content -it will be renewed every six months-, the space has been inaugurated with a sample the 26 most iconic photographs of Ortiz Echagüe, a documentary and other materials that illustrate his biography and his peculiar developing technique.

At conference room you can see a representation of each of his main photographic series -España tipos y trajes, Pueblos y paisajes, Castillos y alcázares and España mística-, and of the developing techniques he used. Thus, some of the photographs on display are intended to explain in a didactic way one of the most peculiar aspects of his work, which is procedure in charcoal.

The Museum's curatorial department , directed by Valentín Vallhonrat and Rafael Levenfeld, will curate the Space. The selection of the following exhibitions has already been planned, after classifying Ortiz Echagüe's work into five groups. Periodically, every six to nine months, this bequest will be unveiled. "In addition to conservation reasons, we will constantly change the work because we want visitors to visit the Museum frequently, and to recognize it as a living space that studies and evolves its collection, where nothing is static or in permanent exhibition , so that every time they come, they discover something new," said Valentín Vallhonrat. All the images that will be housed in this space have three characteristics: they will be iconic photographs, representative of his work and didactic about the procedures.  

Ortiz Echagüe' s bequest was the nucleus that gave rise to the University's photographic collection, and it articulates many of the themes of the Museum's Collection, currently comprising more than 15,000 photographs and 200,000 negatives.

José Ortiz Echagüe

José Ortiz Echagüe (Guadalajara, 1886 - Madrid, 1980) was a Spanish military engineer, pilot and photographer. In his professional career he stood out as a businessman, heading two large companies: Construcciones Aeronáuticas S.A. (C.A.S.A.) and later, the first Spanish automobile manufacturing industry, SEAT. At the same time, he developed an intense photographic work focused on the documentation of Spanish culture, landscape and architecture, which has earned him recognition as one of the authors core topic in the history of Spanish photography.